v. [f. LEGAL + -IZE.]
1. trans. To make legal or conformable to law; to invest with the authority of law; to authorize, justify, sanction.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1723), VII. 75. The conditions required to legalize such a defence of ourselves and fortunes.
1791. Mackintosh, Vind. Gallic., Wks. 1846, III. 143. It … could not … legalise the acts of the body which created it. Ibid. (1824), Sp. Ho. Com., 1 June ibid. 410. We may now be said annually to legalise military law.
1860. Hook, Lives Abps., I. i. 2. There was a period in our history … when oppression was legalised.
1884. Sir H. Hawkins, in Law Times Rep., L. 816/1. The intention of the Legislature to legalise … mere games of skill.
2. To imbue with the spirit of the (Mosaic) law; to pervert in the spirit of legalism. rare.
1774. Fletcher, Grace & Justice, Wks. 1795, IV. 181. What, will you still persist to legalize the gospel?
¶ 3. intr. To practise as a lawyer. nonce-use.
1855. Cornwall, 244. Jobson still legalizes in Gray’s Inn.
Hence Legalization, the action of legalizing.
1805. W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., III. 286. As soon as he has completed the form of legalization.
1848. Mill, Pol. Econ., III. xxxiii. § 3 (1876), 389. The legalization of joint stock associations with limited liability.
1862. M. Hopkins, Hawaii, 373. The open encouragement and legalisation of vice.
